The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has affirmed a $2.4 million financial penalty against a Florida man for illegal pirate radio broadcasts in North Miami, Florida.
According to a Forfeiture Order issued by the Commission, Fabrice Polynice “willfully and knowingly did or caused pirate radio broadcasting, resulting in at least 22 days of violations,” associated with the operation of his unauthorized radio station known as “Radio Touche Douce.” Under the provisions of the federal Communications Act, Polynice has been ordered to pay $2,391,097.
Polynice has reportedly operated “Radio Touche Douce” since 2012, and the Commission has a long history of enforcement actions against him and his accomplices for operating the station in various locations. Most recently, Polynice received a Notice of Apparently Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) in January 2024, following extensive surveillance by field agents of the Miami Field Office of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau. In that NAL, the Commission calculated a proposed forfeiture of over $2.6 million but reduced the amount to $2,391,097 based on statutory limits.
In his response to the FCC’s NAL, Polynice did not dispute the basis for the Commission’s actions but claimed that the amount of the proposed forfeiture exceeded his financial ability to pay. However, in its Forfeiture Order, the FCC noted that the “ability to pay” is just one of many factors considered in determining the amount of the forfeiture, and that Polynice’s “history of prior violations and the intentional nature of his misconduct” supported their decision to hold firm on the amount of forfeiture as originally proposed.
The FCC’s Forfeiture Order for Polynice is available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-25-32A1.pdf.
The original Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL) is available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-08A1.pdf.
